Telecommuting and working from home August 20, 2008

If I got a dollar for each one of the many people who have expressed SHOCK when they hear that I’ve been working from home for the past few months, that I actually did that while I worked in Mexico, and that I do that now that I’m visiting Mom, I’d be a few hundred dollars richer.

Telecommuting is something that the research centre where I used to work didn’t mind because they knew I always put in really long hours. Therefore, they didn’t actually need me to “check in, check out”. Usually, I would work from home every other Friday. My brother (who is a civil engineer) oversaw the design and construction of my home office (he did the same with his, but somehow mine turned out prettier – according to him — I love his home office).

My home office at Mom’s

Apparently, in Mexico, telecommuting isn’t such a prevalent practice. But I DO know that A HUGE NUMBER OF my academic colleagues, and a substantial number of my non-academic friends can work from home with certain regularity.

Now the question is on to you. Do you telecommute often? Or if you can’t telecommute, would that be an option you’d like to explore or do you prefer regimented, 9-5, office stuff.

I am a TERRIBLE work-at-home-er. I really need other people to check in with and collaborate with to be effective.

But I do take advantage of opportunities for flexible hours and telecommuting to fit the rest of my life in around my work-week.

I’m lucky enough to work for a company that believes in results above all else. This means we don’t have set hours, we all do what it takes to get our jobs done. Thanks to good job distribution and effective management, that works out to about one full-time job for each person (sometimes a little more). Most weeks I work 40-45 hours, usually through the 9-5 period. Sometimes that inflates as high as 60, sometimes as low as 25.

I just went into an agreement with my employer to telecommute 3 times a day. Though I am waiting on the Dell Laptop I am having them order (XPS with a webcam built in). One of the requirements my boss gave me was that he could talk to me via video with Skype so since we only buy business laptops from Dell I had to go with an XPS because they are the only ones for business that have the built in webcam. Less peripherals the better right?

My schedule will be Mon/Tue/Thur telecommute at 9-5 then Wed/Fri will be my regular 6-230 (enough time for me to get to Cypress in the winter to go snowboarding!)

I have done a test run from working at home and it went well. People don’t bug me or ask me dumb questions (they assumed I was sick) I got more work done because I don’t have random conversations at work near me that interfere with me trying to stay on task lol.

When I severed my Achilles tendon I worked from home for 2 months and loved it. Worked out side in the backyard in the sunshine was definitely a bonus. The only thing that started to make me meh was the non social aspect of telecommuting. I like person to person interaction here and there.

Anyway I am looking forward to working from home (either Westend or Pitt Meadows lol) So if I am in the Westend Raul we should meet up for coffee or something one day!

I perfer the contact and interaction with people so I’m at the office most often. Granted I can work from home if needed and sometimes have to, but that is usually after hours.

I have worked a full day from home before and I do find I do get alot more done. I find I take less breaks than I would if I was at the office, and I think that is more to do with the fear of people from my office thinking I’m slacking and not really “working”.

I like being in an office, relaxed as it is. I have done it all work wise, but I really prefer a good group of people all working together to accomplish our work. I think though the option to telecommute work wise depends entirely on your job. For instance, a person who works in construction can’t really phone in his job, he has to be on site. A truck driver hauling goods around the country can’t call in the delivery. A chef can’t text in his cooking skills to the kitchen. You get my point.

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